Hodgepodge

I've only just realised, but this is my 99th post. Unless something mega huge and exciting happens that just NEEDS to be blogged about, like a fire or a tornado or an earthquake or, you know, all the terrible things life can periodically throw at you which needs to be reported upon via the internet as soon as it happens, tomorrows post will be post number 100.

I'm afraid it's rather crept up on me. I would have liked to do something special as it were. Perhaps a giveaway or a vlog, but I've nothing to give right now and if ever I do a vlog it will probably take numerous recordings and lots of editing...had I realised it was coming up so quick I might have already made one (and I could have crossed another goal off of my day zero list!)

Well, if anyone has any ideas do send them this way!

In the meantime, since it would really suck if post 99 was just me rabbiting on about the next post being number one hundred, here's a hodgepodge post of my thoughts for the day.

• I've really gotten into this whole challenge thing. I know it's only four days in (sixty six to go!) but I feel really focussed on my goals. I think it was the best thing I've dedicated myself to in a while.

• My knitting is going BLURG at the minute. I've not dropped or added any stitches, but for some reason I suddenly loosened up the tension and I've ended up with a massive bulge. I'm half tempted to unravel it all and start from scratch but I've spent so long on it already, it would be a shame. I might continue till the end and see what I make of it then. I might not be able to use it as a present as I'd hoped, but if I can't then hey, at least I have a new scarf to add to my winter collection!

• Last year, I dreaded winter because the past four winters beforehand had been spent miserable and depressed. I suffer with SAD in a major way. However, last winter actually was much better than the other ones and was in fac quite enjoyable. I'm already really looking forward to October coming along. I like dark evenings and bright lights in the form of halloween decor/fireworks/eventually xmas decor. I look forward to strolling down Church/Lord Street all wrapped up against the cold, enjoying the winter market and gorging myself on honey nuts and hog roast sandwiches. I love a good hog roast. I wanted one for my wedding, but I couldn't convince anyone it would be a good idea.

• As I've been blitzing through my kitchen I've come to realise how much crap I have in there that I don't need, and now as I look around my flat I've come to similar conclusions, but also I've realised how much I can utilise what little space I do have for storing what I do need to keep. For example, I've been thinking of ways to store my towels and linnen etc which are currently stacked, haphazardly, on top of my wardrobe because there's no where else to put them...but I have a load of empty plastic boxes that we used for moving and storing junk which we have since gotten rid of. I don't know why it has never occured to me to put these to good, active use instead of just stacking them in a corner till we need them again for moving.

• Since we got our laptop, we've not really used our half dead desktop pc. I'm thinking of putting it into storage till it is needed, so I can transform the desk (which is tiny, and only has space for the monitor and computer equipment) into a vanity table come useable office area come craft space (it's difficult to lean over a low coffee table and make nice jewellery). It will be nice for it to be used as something other than a dumping ground for our defunct electrical equipment. Ben might need some talking around to this idea, however. When he realises it means my makeup, hair and jewellery stuff is moved away from the coffee table, he might come round to it. Oh, he might also come round to it when he realises it means he has somewhere to sit and paint his car models properly too.

• I seem to be getting nesting tendancies. Should probably take a pregnancy test.

• On second thoughts, that's the most ridiculous idea I've had in a while.

• It occured to me last night that our kettle is the very one my mum and dad bought me from the Tesco Express opposite St Johns shopping centre the day they moved me to Liverpool. I was shitting myself that day, I'd only been to Liverpool once before, for an open day at the University! This makes me feel a little nostalgic, especially as it now needs replacing. It's been a good little trooper for something we got for a fiver and has now last comin up to six years!

• Along with this overhaul at home, I'm going to do some streamlining of my blog since it's now 100 entries long (well...tomorrow). Gonna go through all my posts and change all the tags to useful, meaningful tags since my usual "just say something funny and relevant" has created that mess on the side.

• Ben just called from work. No need to convince him. The computer is getting moved and the desk revamped. Hooray!

Holy mother of God...where did my kitchen go?

Appologies in advance for gnawing your ears off regarding my rediscovery of housecleaning. It was either this or a NaBlo entry, and the prompt for NaBlo today was "Are you scared of being in open water" the answer to which is a simple "I'm afraid of being in any body of water larger and deeper than a hot tub" and would not have really satisfied my concience as an actual entire blog entry!

Well, I am well and truly exhausted. After yesterday's introduction to this Beat the Heat challenge where I expressed irritation at my own laziness, I did indeed draw up a daily schedule for chores, errands and chill outs (so the later would not overcome the former) and I've been quite busy all day. In fact, I don't actually know where the day so far as gone to. Now however is blog time.

I mentioned using the FLY lady system of doing chores and how it's helped me in the past. Well, one of the things involved with this system is that every week you focus on a new part of the home, each a different "zone" and this week happens to be zone two...the kitchen. Now, I grumbled a bit because for some reason I always start on a kitchen week, and my kitchen is one of the few places in the home which I'm generally (not 100% mind you, but generally) happy with. There's no dish problem, the surfaces are wiped down twice a day if not more, everything has its place (even if that place happens to be thrown in the back of a cupboard where they can't be seen). Never the less, I'd scheduled an hour of cleaning in the zone, next week will be a new zone and whatever that zone may be, fine, it gets done.

I figured I'd do the pots and rinse off the draining board and sink. Our draining board, somewhat counter intuitively, sits on a slight incline away from the sink. As such, all the soap suds from our nice clean dishes drip drip drip onto the board and after a while they form this horrid smelly, soapy scum. Whilst I waited for the breakfast dishes to dry so I could clear the drainer (I've found myself in a position where all the clean tea towels are in the laundry cause I'm a dufus like that) I started decluttering the end of the counter top which had collected more detritus. Then I realised some of the small appliance cables were a bit sticky and dusty from being around the general cooking area so I decided to unplug everything and give it all a quick once over....

Are you seeing where I'm going yet? I ended up completely ripping out otherwise pretty much stationary appliances and gadgets that I had always considered to be in their correct and rightful places and just...wow. It never occured to me that dust and detritus and general all round filth and muck can collect in such quantities underneath all of your stuff. It wasn't just a case of dusting down the kitchen radio...it required damp dusting with tiny amounts of warm soapy water. The surface underneath it required neat flash just to, euch, wow, I mean really seriously, I pride myself on clean counter tops but euch this was horrible.

Yes, the kitchen will be gutted and dusted from top to bottom this week, and the next time it's a zone two week, it will happen again, though hopefully not with the same "ewwww gross" reaction as it managed to get from me this time (because I will of course be on top of it all!)

Of course, if I thought from the surface appearence that the kitchen was clean and tidy, but it turned out to be rather foul, what are the bits of the flat that are obviously not clean and tidy? I shudder to think what I'll dig up over the next ten weeks of deep clean...

Beat The Heat challenge - Week One

Well I've spoken about it often enough and here we are, the first week of my first seasonal challenge!





1.       What are your goals for the 10 week challenge? 

My goals are to loose another ten pounds, make at least five Christmas presents, work towards some of the goals I've already set on my Day Zero list, expand my recipe journal, keep on track with my job hunt, and last but not least, to FLY through my household chores each week. I've written more about my goals already in my challenge page (link on the right) so for more details on how I plan to hold myself accountable and achieve these goals you can head over there. For future reference I shall also be keeping track of my progress there so if you like check back to see how I'm going!

2.       Why did you pick those goals? What makes them important right now?

For goal one, lose ten pounds, I've chosen this to keep my mind focussed on the short term. When I think oh, I need to loose a couple of stone by the end of the year I get complacent and I never stick to it. However, by choosing to make this a goal for the next ten weeks I know that I am fighting to achieve this in a short ammount of time, and this will help me achieve my goal of loosing those couple of stone by the end of the year and ultimately eventually get down to my ideal healthy weight. It is important right now because despite having been trying for the past year to stick to loosing weight I have not been succesful in doing so and have instead yo-yo'd up and down in the range of 16 pound. If I loose another ten pounds over the course of this challenge, I will have broken the 16 pound range and I will be able to say that in the course of the year I have, over all, lost over 16 pounds, which is important to me.

And now for the other goals haha! Well, without writing an essay on each singular goal like the first one, each of these goals is important to me for one reason; I'm desperately trying to kick myself out of the habit of laziness in which I find myself having been unemployed for over a year now. It's difficult to keep motivated and productive at all in such a situation, even when chores and tasks are piling up all around you. My other five goals should keep me busy and hopefully by the end of the ten weeks I will indeed have shaken this bad habit. I will be productive, active, healthier in both body and mind, and have a home life I can be proud of instead of the lazy, shameful waste of space that I am now.

3.       What’s your biggest excuse reason for not doing something and how are you going to stop it getting in the way? 

No excuses or valid reasons, I'm just lazy and badly motivated. Ok, it's difficult to admit that on here, but I think it's important to do so if I'm going to achieve these goals. Not every day is spent bumming around on the internet of course...some days I get more done, some days can you believe it I get even less done. But given that my goals are all focussed on breaking up this cycle (I don't like what I am, what I've become, how bone idle I am, I never have liked it and I've tried on many other occasions to break it, but without success) I need to face up to my horrid lifestyle. Haha, if I manage to do it this time, I might actually have interesting things to blog about!

Anyway, how do I intend to stop this self propogating cycle of laziness getting in my way of these six goals? That's a good question actually, but having given it some thought I intend to make a daily schedule and stick to it. This could in itself be a seventh goal, to stick to that, but I think so long as these goals are achieved then my task will be complete and I will be well on my way to a better lifestyle. In fact that's pretty much what I see this challenge as being, a complete lifestyle overhaul.

4.       Are you a planner or do you go with the flow?

I'm stuck in the middle. I love to plan, absoloutely adore it. I could be a great PA because I would have each and every second of the day scheduled and commited to memory! However, when it comes to my home life at least, I don't always stick to plans once they are made. It'll start off well, but then something won't go according to that plan, and then something else won't, and then I'm all pissed off and the whole thing goes out of the window because oh, what was the point in planning it all in the first place? Such plans are surely only good for the work place where they get done! The same happens with my weight loss to be honest...I start great, then I have a bad day and the next thing you know the whole week is out of the window and I get stuck in a rut.

I think for this to work, I'm going to have to become more easygoing, would you believe it. Make my plans, yes, by all means, but if something comes up to disrupt my plans then absorb it into the schedule and carry on with the next item on the agenda. I've done it at work before, so I should be able to do it at home too!

5.       Tell us something that will help us get to know you.

Haha, I suppose that all makes my life sound terrible doesn't it! No that is only one aspect, and like I said, some days are great and others not so much, everything changes and no two days are precisely alike. I don't consist entirely of this unmotivated old cow. So some other side of me...well since I'm new to this challenge thing and some of you will have never read my blog before, I'm Bex, I'm married to Ben, have been for two and a half years now, I live in Liverpool but I'm from near Durham in the north east originally. I have a fascination with all things geological but having had a bit of a fall out with it at University my professional life lies somewhere else...where exactly is a mystery just yet, but I'm hoping to go back to Uni in the not too distant future and eventually I'd like to put my listening skills to good use and become a counsellor (If there is something I know I'm good at it's listening!). I have a multitude of hobbies because when it comes to rest and relaxation I get very bored very easily. Aside from partaking in the playing of video games, my most recent fascination is knitting but I also make jewellery, play the flute (only in private because I'm a little self concious, but I still derrive joy from it) and even partake in a spot of writing from time to time.


Positive Picture

One of the weekly challenges is to post a positive picture, so for this first week I'm offering you this little tidbit;

It's an old picture that a good friend recently found lying around. Taken with an actual camera with film that needs developing, would you believe it! Anyhow, this is from December of 2005, the end of my first semester at University. I'm stood there on the extreme right hand side next to Ben (don't we both look young!). This is a positive picture because at this point in my life I was still relatively active and generally happy. It wasn't until after the New Year that things began to slide downhill for me, on various levels, that ultimately would end up where I am now in my life. At this point in my life, everything was going pretty much according to plan. I was overweight, but not extremely so the way I am now. Compared to now I don't think I look too bad.

Since my goals are about making a lifestyle overhaul, the first few steps on getting back on track, I offer this as a positive picture as to what "on track" actually looks like. No, things obviously weren't perfect, and things never will be perfect, but this is my ultimate aim. To be happy, surrounded by friends, active, working towards something meaningful and useful in my life. Not just sat here at my laptop thinking this is as good as it'll ever get and I should get used to my lot in life. I can put things right again, and this picture doesn't need to be a reminder of better days but a kick start to them instead.

Also, I still have that top...let's make just one longer term goal, that by the time the clock runs out on my Day Zero list, I'll be able to fit into it again!

L.A. Noire; a first impressions review from a not very serious gamer

First off, thanks for all the positive comments regarding curry, I shall endeavour to share the final recipe and results with you next Saturday!

I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon (when I wasn't looking for curry recipe's lol) playing L.A. Noire. I've not spent half as much time on it as Mister Ben has, and in a way it's to my detriment...many of the story lines I'm passing through I already know from overhearing it as he played it out, and as such it's felt like a bit of a slog as I scamper to catch up somewhat into the part where I decided to take a bath/do some knitting and was too engrossed to pay much attention to the tv so that there'd be new stuff.

I know it's probably not at all in best practise to review something I haven't finished yet but now I'm finally playing it off of my own steam it doesn't seem like a bad place to tell of my first impressions.

I'm not a huge gamer, and when I do play anything that doesn't involve lording it over pretendy peoples lives like a pixel overlord (or overlady?) or building businesses or cities, it's usually the kind where I can run up to dragons and promptly bop them over the head with a sword. I can't shoot for toffee, and often end up dead and twitching on the ground before I've even had the chance to level up. I don't like shooty games because I can't do them. In fact I believe my brother heard me swear for the first time in his life (at least to my knowlege!) the first and only time we played Left for Dead together. I'm just not good at such games.

So L.A. Noire appealed to me. I understood of course there would be some action...I may not like out and out shoot-em-up's but come on, a cop game without guns? That would be too much, even for me. But the overall theme was more sedate, its big selling point being that it involves questioning eyewitnesses and using your intuition to read their facial expressions to tell whether or not they are being entirely honest with you.

When I first read this, I was intrigued. What I imagined was a game with a scope similar to that of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, with a story line which, depending on your correct or incorrect interpretation of the evidence and interviews, could go various different paths. It seemed a logical conclusion, in my head. If a detective in real life fails to get all the evidence, a suspect walks free, and there are possible consequences. I imagined a great show down at the end where everyone was in on a great conspiracy in which you have to do battle against each and every one of the suspects you failed to prosecute succesfully.

Well, obviously I'm not at the end yet! However, the reality of the games storyline is far from what I imagined.

Don't get all the evidence? Misinterpret your witnesses body language? That's ok, because your boss sends you back in to interrogate them until you get a confession. At the end, the only real consequence is your score, with cases given up to five star ratings.

If you are a points and achievements collector then this is all very well, but in reality it makes the whole game very linear, when the possibilities of this new technology of which it boasts mean it could be so much more interesting.

Of course, other Rock Star games have pretty linear storylines too, so I shouldn't really have expected anything else, but the monotony is broken up somewhat in games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption by the open world. So far there isn't very much of that in L.A. Noire, though I understand that once the main storyline is complete there's more chance to drive around LA and "collect" any small side cases that you've yet to complete. But it's not quite the same as being able to pull up to town and randomly engage with a passer by who mayhap has a mission for you.

Perhaps because of this very linear game play, which I'll admit is probably a fault only because of my own personal taste in gaming (which, as explained before, isn't exactly wide in its range or sophisticated at all) what L.A. Noire provides, essentially, is a series of crime episodes, as if played out as a series on TV, in which you are basically the driver. You will not loose, however frustrating having to go back to re interview your suspects may ultimately be, but you may well not experience the entire story if you do not, for example, pick up all of the clues.

I can't deny I'm a little dissapointed. It isn't what I expected, but perhaps I should have read up on it more or read more reviews. Aside from my own niggles and annoyances, the storyline itself isn't bad at all, and I am chomping at the bit to see more of that. Perhaps by the end of it all I'll feel a little less frustrated and will have enjoyed taking part in the story.

But even if I do want to go back and pick up more achievements by the time I've finished, I can't see that I'll get any joy at all from replaying it.

Six Word Saturday - Curry

Searching for Curry recipe's is dangerous

As part of my quest to expand the recipe journal I got from my baby bro and sister for my birthday, I'm undertaking to try more new meals. To start myself off, I'm simply going to make dishes that I know I like but that I'd otherwise reach for a jar to make. As Ben is a great lover of curry, and curry is one of those things that I always imagined tasted so much better when made from scratch, mixing the spices etc myself, and having been inspired by Saturday Cooks this morning, I have decided that next Saturday we shall dine upon a feast of Curry with a side of Naan bread and Bombay Potatoes (as I cannot stomach rice.).

The Naan bread and potatoes are not really an issue. I used to bake my own bread on a relatively frequent basis, and while Naan's have a slightly different recipe (in that it includes yoghurt and seasoning) the basic concept is the same...flour, yeast, knead it all up, leave it to rise, stick it in the oven. The potatoes, again, not so much a problem...prepare potatoes, spice and fry.

But trying to find a recipe for curry?

Curry is not one dish, it is almost a food group...it's like saying oh, I need a recipe for soup. There are hundreds of variations, some are hot, some are chilled, some are clear and some are thick and brothy. I expected no less for curry, and in my hunt for a nice recipe to try I've found some amazingly delicious sounding dishes. However, the recipe's seem to lie at either end of two extremes...either they are so simple I may as well just get my stuff from a jar, or they contain a million and one ingredients that I'd probably have to go to one of the international food stores to pick half of it up, which wouldn't be a problem except I'm looking to put these recipe's into my journal, and I want to know that wherever I go I will always be able to have access to these ingredients...so whilst Liverpool is great for its range of exotic food stores thanks to its wonderful multicultural community, if I were to want to cook this for my parents when I next visit, I would really struggle to get half of the ingredients required. Plus, you know, I'm on a tight budget and can't really afford to go running around Liverpool looking for these exotic items, and last time I looked, neither Asda nor my local green grocers weren't stocking Lemon Grass.

I've found a recipe that looks promising, however. It's called a "Lamb Curry" which in itself is a bit worrying...I mean, what kind of curry it is I couldn't tell you (it's obviously not a Korma, but that's all I know!) and the list of spices is pretty easy to come about at our local Asda. The only "exotic" thing I might struggle with is that it also contains Garam Masala, which I understand is actually a spice mix, and the exact contents of said mix apparently differs from cook to cook and dish to dish so where to start really! However, I shall endeavour to find a recipe for a good all rounder.

Either way, I expect that next Friday my spice rack is going to get much more interesting! I shall, of course, let you know how it goes!

That time of the month

So I've commited to NaBloPoMo and thus I must write. I'm not writing about swimming today though because something really funny just happened.

Ben asked if it was 'that time of the month' because, apparently, I'm being a complete and utter bitch. Of course he didn't quite use those words exactly, he said "You've been rather 'snippy' over the past few days" but as his snippy wife, I know exactly what he means by that.

Don't worry, there is no 'trouble in paradise'. I just had to laugh because it's the first time he's ever asked me that in the (almost) six years since we met. Which means that I must be on top bitchy form, and deserve a pat on my back for sharpening my cruel tongue (and also, sorry if I have actually upset anyone. Except Ben. Bitch.).

I do wonder though. I'm Amenorrheic, have been for (almost) six years would you believe it (Ben has clearly done something funky and awful to my body!) and before then, the only reason I wasn't was because of a magic little pill called Dianette. Still, having had a multitude of tests from the doctor, there's actually no reason I should be such, aside from the fact that I'm overweight...my hormones are normal. The doctor theorised that the excess fat of my body simply metabolises the hormones I produce before they complete their good and proper job.


So I wonder, if this is the case, do I still get a 'time of the month' as such? Not the physical symptoms, but the hormonal mood swings? I've had serious bouts of low mood to high mood swings quite frequently, but never mere bitchiness. Ben has also in his great wisdom wondered if I was Bi-polar thanks to those low/high mood swings, but I wonder if, in the presense of actual menstruation, it would be better explained as just PMT.


Well there's food for though. If any fellow PCOS sufferers or Amenorrheics stumble upon my blog, I put this question to you too...do you still get a monthly mood swing?

Swimming

Nothing much to report today...except that tomorrow is the first of July, and I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo again, since my blogging juices seem to have dried up a bit. The theme this month is swimming, which isn't exactly fantastic for myself since I cannot swim and indeed fear the swimming (perhaps I drowned in a past life because by all means being fat as I am I should be able to float better than anyone!).

It's my second stab at NaBlo, and the first time since the reins were given over to BlogHer (which I've no experience of but seems not to be the kind of community I'd otherwise be a part of) so we'll see how it goes...and see if the prompts are any more regular and blog inspiring that they were back in February!

Beat the Heat challenge starts on Monday and I'm looking forward to it...I've just recieved the reminder email with the first weeks questions etc, so before that gets lost somewhere in the vast crampedness that is my inbox I should probably be pre emptive and start a draft ready for Monday (just like I've been pre emptive and started on some of my goals...but only because I was bored and didn't want to wait!)

Anyway, yes, this month is all set to be a busy blogging month, and I am looking forward to it!